The Polish filmmaker Krzysztof Kieslowski once made a documentary in which he asked the same four questions of 100 different people, filming the responses and editing them together to paint a portrait of a community. I decided to try something similar in a virtual version, starting with some of his questions and adding a few of my own.
Here are some of the answers:

Thursday, August 31, 2006

10 question for Maystar

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The band MAYSTAR

Who are you?

The band MAYSTAR.I know all bands say this, but we're really serious: we don't reallyfit into any genre. It's really frustrating not being about toidentify with any certain kind of sound. It makes describing ourmusic a chore and booking shows with similar sounding bandsimpossible. It's not like we are *that* different, but in a way weare. We're like shoegaze with out all the instruments, indie rockerswithout the rock, gothic without all the black, alternative, but wejust don't sound like Alanis Morrisette. Although a few confused soulsdid compare us to Nirvanna.Others say our sound is kind of like a spine-tingling stripped-downPinback and old Black Heart Procession meets Blonde Redhead, Denali,Deerhoof, and Siouxie. That stripped down part is definitley the thingthat makes our sound hard to categorize.

I am May Jacoband Abe DeLeon is the other half of the band. He's currently makingout with his guitar somewhere.

Where are from?

From. That's a hard question. I've moved over 40 times in my life,first because of my mother's restlessness, and then because of livingin foster homes. I've lived many places in California, including MorroBay (in San Luis Obispo), Nevada, and a couple places in Alaska. Icurrently live in San Diego.

Abe is has lived in San Diego his whole life.

What do you do?

I write lyrics, melodies, and sing. But I guess it's not just singing,our show is a little bit like going to see a play. I have my degree inTheatre and I think the years of theatre classes come out when I sing.Like laying down on stage for parts of songs, and kind of acting thesongs out, in an almost gothic way, kind of. I also design the dressesI wear for our shows. And I do drawings and graphic design for ourCDs, shirts, flyers, and the web-design for our site and myspace. I'msecretly a MAC nerd, but shhh, don't tell anyone! ; ) One step inthe other direction and I may have found myself a computer programmer.

Abe plays guitar, keyboards, and drum beats. He kind of does a littlebit of everything. We have all these things we do for our live show,and he played construction worker for them to come into existence. Abeused to play drums for Soul Junk. He also played guitar and otherinstruments in San Diego's Jupiter Crash and The Verso. He mostlywrote all the parts for both bands. He's really an amazing guitarist,he comes up with these guitar parts that no one else around here caneven play.

Why do you do what you do?

I have no idea. I've been writing songs and poems ever since I was putinto foster homes at the age of 11. They were always just writtensongs, but as soon as I turned 18 and got away from the foster homes,I started putting them to music.

Abe plays guitar because he loves it and it's his way of expressinghis feelings. Abe's reason for living is music. Really.

What are you working on?

Right now we're supposed to be working on recording new songs, but I'mreally sick and so Abe is recording what he can by himself. Yeah, thesick person gets to do the interviews I guess.

What's next?

Next we're thinking about touring some more, and writing some moresongs. We also have a lot of filmmaker friends and keep talking aboutmaking a music video, but so far there hasn't been any time for that.We always get all sorts of ideas for all these things we want to do,and there are just so many that we are just all over the place withoutany specific direction. We do what we feel. Logic and creativityalways get all mixed up together with this band. Whether that's a bador good thing, I don't know yet.

When will you be here? With who?

We'll be playing at the Alibi on Sunday, September 17th.I've had at least five of my friends tell me to say hi to Ian forthem when we're there, so I take it this must be a good place withgood people.Apparently we get 5 free pitches of Olympia. If you want free beer,you should come talk to me. Seriously.The other band we're playing with is Meru.

Who's that?

I was told that they are from Portland, but their website saysOlympia, Washington. Olympia, like the free beer!

Website? MySpace?

Our website is Maystardesigns.comI boycotted myspace for at least a year, but finally put up a profilein late 2004. Abe boycotted myspace until just a few months ago.We've just now begun to really use it: Myspace.com/Maystar

Anything else you want to add?

I really like carrot juice. Hint, hint.(haha)Let me know if there is anything else you need from me!xoxoMay*